Notes
Well this was an interesting first race back since Jan 1st. My goal was since I hadn't raced in so long was to run more of a tempo effort the first mile and access how I feel and hopefully finish the last mile strong. I knew if i went out hard I would crash and burn.
It was vert windy and the race finished with a lap around the track. Actually it was the worst track I ever ran on. It was probably 300 meters and painted cement with small bumps/hills!
Anyhow lining up at the start all the Everett high school boys and girls track team were there. I talked with one girl and asked if she knew the route. She said she runs it every year and gave me a nice description and said however it;s not a 5K, it's 3.5 miles! So I knew going out a bit conservatively was going to be even more important. Now my plan was to pick up up at mile 2.5 and see if I can hold pace until the finish.
Race goes off and 30 high school kids go out as if shot by a cannon! and I could tell i am just not nearly race fit yet as the first mile had downhill and even thought I held back somewhat I was surprised i was so slow with 6:22. The rest of the race was into a strong wind. Mile two I ran with the same effort and it had an uphill, so 6:38 was fine. At this point I had moved into 3rd. The first kid was 40 seconds ahead and the 2nd about 20. I could tell he was slowing down a bit as I was gaining without running any faster. With a 1.5 miles left I thought I might catch him.
We come up the street near the track about 2.5 miles into race I thought we would do a loop around the neighborhood before going on the track because we had a mile to go. Wrong!!! This was the finish - right on to the track. The boy in 2nd had 8 seconds on me as we entered the track and I started to kick. He turned and looked back and he took off harder. I did close to 3 seconds. I knew this was no where near 3.5 miles. It was only 2.9. Not even a 5K!
If I knew it was going to be 2.9 instead of 3.5, I would have picked it up sooner. I did run close to 6:00 pace the last .9 miles against the wind, so I am happy with that. I had no foot/hamstrings problems, so this is a good sign.
I feel I am in about 18:45 5K shape.
However later in the day after 3 shows, my PF (Plantar Fasciitis) was killing me.